Have a question for Tim?

If insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting the Padres to play better, what’s to be done that could make any difference with our dismal Home Team?

How do you fix a lineup with severe limitations, improve an infield of diminishing range, repair a pitching rotation down two starters, and do it in midseason on an inelastic budget?

Answer: You don’t. You can’t. The right pieces are not yet in place or in range to cure all that ails the Padres, and some of those pieces may not materialize any time soon. Unless the franchise is swiftly sold to ownership committed to a significant infusion of cash, the short-term outlook is sameness.

“In a perfect world, we’d have guys in the minors pushing and saying, ‘Hey, take a look at me,’ ” Padres General Manager Josh Byrnes said before Friday’s 4-1 loss to Philadelphia. “In reality, we’ve got a lot of (prospects) who are either banged up or are not off to great starts.”

In a perfect world, the Padres would not be 3-12, would not be leading the major leagues in striking out and (through Thursday) in unearned runs allowed, and they would certainly not be 8½ games behind the Dodgers a week before Arbor Day. In a perfect world, Carlos Quentin would have returned home healthy, Adrian Gonzalez would never have left, and umpire Dale Scott would save his touchdown signals for football season.

Perfection is elusive, though, even in paradise, and Josh Byrnes is a pragmatist. Though he describes himself as “pretty impatient,” current events do not lend themselves to major changes or pointed messages. He is handcuffed, at least for the moment, by happenstance.

Byrnes believes he has the clearance to eat big contracts — Orlando Hudson’s being the popular choice — but he’s not a big fan of symbolic gestures if there’s no succession plan in place. Thus until Logan Forsythe is again operational following foot surgery, Hudson’s job is probably safe. With Tucson shortstop Everth Cabrera batting just .255 in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, Jason Bartlett should also have time to find his stroke.

Baseball executives are an intensely competitive breed, but being aching to act doesn’t always mean you have a logical alternative. Sometimes, you just have to take your lumps and wait for the wind to shift. This would appear to be one of those times.

“When you’re living through it day by day, every loss bothers you,” Byrnes said. “It bothers us. It bothers the fans. By the same token, from where I sit, it shouldn’t be that everything has to go right to win a game. We need to get better. With Matt Kemp doing what he’s doing (for the Dodgers), you can make a few more mistakes. We don’t have that ...

“We want to be the kind of team — not only winning it, but doing it over a period of seasons. We’re not quite at that level where we can say we’re prepared to be a sustained winner.”

Byrnes’ two-pronged off-season position statement was that he was unwilling to concede the 2012 season, in large part because he did not perceive a dominant team in the National League. He wanted to believe the Padres could be competitive in the comparatively balanced National League West, and that they might be more than competitive if his prospects progressed ahead of schedule.

It hasn’t helped that the Padres opened the season without Quentin’s bat in the middle of their lineup and without Tim Stauffer, their presumed Opening Day starter. Still, when Byrnes compares the Padres’ predicament to the “transitional” years of the Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers, his sunniest scenarios flirt with delusion.

This, too, goes with the territory. Part of a general manager’s job is to convey a vision that creates hope and moves tickets, to paint pretty pictures until his team is capable of its own artistry. That job is made doubly difficult in San Diego by payroll constraints and perpetual churn, by fire sales and patchwork rosters.

When the Tampa Bay Rays were building a contending team, they did so by turning bad seasons into brilliant draft picks. When the Padres had their choice of any amateur player in the country, they chose Matt Bush.

Josh Byrnes bears no responsibility for the errors on his predecessors’ scorecards, but he is undoubtedly burdened by them. Though the Padres’ farm system has shown progress of late, it contains no player with as high a ceiling as an Evan Longoria or a David Price. Neither does the big club, for that matter. What Byrnes fancies as a “transitional” year so far looks suspiciously like stagnation.

“Losing is not fun,” Byrnes said. “It bothers me. It bothers everyone. By the same token, the gains we made in the farm system, the moves we made in the off-season, we felt like March was kind of a validation.

“I think there’s a reality to this season and where we are, (but) I feel like there are a lot of good pieces in place. We’re not that far removed.”